csd's Daily Photo

Day 141: Sometimes I Even Put Off Procrastinating

csd7227 — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:41:10 +0000

Today’s picture features a Christmas present that I was given by a fellow manager at work. I really meant to make the cookies right away, but as you can see they are still in the jar that they came in. When I am looking around my apartment for things to photograph I somehow have missed this. It was nicely decorated, and the various ingredients are perfect for using the 50mm lens on.

Day 140: A Different Kind of Water Tower

csd7227 — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 02:13:42 +0000

Tonight I was on campus taking pictures yet again. I had a couple of assistants and it was raining so we decided to try and shoot something inside the union. Of course I did not bring my tripod yet again because I would be walking around inside. As is usually goes I ended up outside in a situation where my tripod would have come in handy. I made due with a short wall to get a picture of the clock tower. The picture was okay, but for some reason I didn’t like the result. As we started to walk towards the tower itself I saw the reflection in a large puddle. My camera had already been put away, but of course it came back out to get the shot. I have been trying to capture reflections lately, and this one was too good to pass up. Yet again the tripod would have been great, but I had to just try and stay still. I bumped the ISO up to 6400 which left me with an exposure of one second. It doesn’t sound like much, but that is a long time to stay still. That task can be a little harder when there is a little chill in the air. In the end I liked how my picture turned out. The small movement that I had during the second seems to have helped the clock tower just jump out of the puddle.

Day 139: More Reflections

csd7227 — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:30:55 +0000

Today I thought that my picture of the day was going to come at the Purdue game. As the game time started to draw closer I realized that I really didn’t want to go to the game. Instead of going to Mackey I drove out to the windmills. The clouds seemed to be breaking up just in time for the sunset. I have my normal spot that I always start at, but noticed this small drainage ditch on my way out. The way that the clouds looked I thought that the ditch might be the better shot. I don’t know if it was, but I went back to get this one anyway. I like how it looks, and I even got to work on some reflections. I really like how they look, and I just need to find a big enough body of water to try this on a little bigger scale. This is now two days in a row that I like my picture of the day. Could the inspiration be back?

Day 138: Back to the Barns

csd7227 — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 22:27:24 +0000

After not feeling very inspired lately I decided to try an HDR barn again today. The sky was very ominous, and everything was wet from the rain that had been on and off all day. I have really wanted to photograph these barns for a while, but I could never get a good angle from the road. When I did find my angle on this busy road someone would always come up behind me and make me quit early. Today everything worked out well, and I got my shot. I love how this turned out with the HDR, and for the first time in a few days I am very happy with my shot of the day.

Day 137: The Only Dog That Would Stay Still

csd7227 — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:33:20 +0000

Tonight I was at my brother’s for a while, and I had a thought of getting a picture of one of his dogs with my iPhone. Of course they wouldn’t stay still long enough for me so I had to improvise. I saw a toy dog on the floor, and thought that maybe it would stay still long enough. I really expected Riot to come running through and grab the toy just as the shutter was released. Thankfully that did not happen, and you have the photo that you see above. I really have been struggling lately getting out to get my picture. This is really a long time to try and come up with something new everyday. I will really have to try and think ahead to give myself things to photograph everyday.

Day 136: A Bare Tree

csd7227 — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 03:02:29 +0000

I really am running out of things to take pictures of in my apartment. Tonight with the clock ticking on getting my picture for the day I really was struggling to find anything that had something interesting about it. This bottle rack at first didn’t look too interesting, but then I thought of something to try. I got down on the floor to shoot up at the rack with my depth of field very shallow. I don’t know if I got exactly the shot I wanted, but in the end I was somewhat happy with it.

Day 135: A Silhouette Sunset

csd7227 — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 01:12:30 +0000

Tonight I thought that the clouds were just right to get a great sunset picture. Of course the conditions change quickly sometimes, and the clouds left as soon as they came in. I still thought that I could capture something with the fading light. The problem was that I was behind schedule getting out to my location so I had to hustle to get anything. I stopped when I came to the first windmills and turned towards them. I found a nice grain elevator to silhouette with the windmills I knew that it could look good if done properly. I think that I did an alright job of capturing the windmills with the barn even while talking on the phone. I think that Ansel Adams did such great work because he didn’t have a cell phone with him. Luckily though the phone allowed me to continue a conversation while still getting my shot. I always try to learn something everyday, and today I learned that I can still function while on the phone. The best part about the picture is that I captured exactly what I wanted to get without the aid of HDR. I think that I could have tweaked this shot a little in the HDR process, but I am more than happy with the results straight out of the camera.

Day 134: The Writing is on the Wall

csd7227 — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:45:20 +0000

Today I was driving down a side street in Lafayette when I saw this graffiti on the back of a liquor store. Actually the entire rear of the building was covered, but for some reason I liked how this one looked the best. I don’t exactly know what it says so I may end up pulling the picture at some point. I think that it says versa, but on the scene I thought that it said jersey. I love how the paint pops off of the black background. It looks as if someone painted over graffiti originally. What the person who painted over it did though is create a great background for the new painting. Graffiti is really art even if illegal. I wanted to see if the HDR process would make it pop. It did. I may have to try to capture some more in the future. Part of what I liked about this picture is the fact that it was signed ACT. Someone is very excited about their college prep test apparently.

Day 133: A Break In The Clouds

csd7227 — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:50:04 +0000

Tonight I was leaving my apartment without a picture taken yet today. I was driving through the parking lot when I noticed a break in the clouds with the sun passing through it. My timing could not have been better at all. I quickly pulled over at the entrance to the parking lot to get this shot. As you can see in the lower right hand corner I apparently was holding up traffic. Sometimes you have to pay a price for art. I thought that in the heat of the moment I did a decent job of framing up this picture. I really liked the shot that I took my time to take, but in the end I liked this very subtle HDR shot a little more.

Day 132: Phoning It In

csd7227 — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:02:39 +0000

Last week I had a post about mailing a shot in. Today was another day where I really did not feel like taking a picture. I was at my brothers trying to get a shot with my iPhone. I would love to say that I wanted a shot of Riot jumping when I took this, but I really was trying to get him standing still. I had the phone set to HDR, and it really doesn’t like motion very much. Just as I hit the button to take the picture Riot started jumping. Due to the shutter delay I got a picture of Riot jumping. In the end I took my picture for the day, but I don’t know what I learned.